Archive for May, 2007

He’s right on target with his comments. The goal of the project is to provide basic access so that kids can get homework assignments and people can fill out job applications. The city isn’t in a position to go head to head with other ISP’s nor should they. He announced the project and a deal at a great time – when vendors and service providers were looking for proof of concept opportunities. The window won’t be open forever. This ongoing debate around what (how much bandwidth) citizens have a right to for free (ad-sponsored) isn’t helping to solve the basic problem. Yes, a good browsing experience requires a fast connection, but 300+ kbps isn’t too bad.

The relationship between Silicon Valley and the wireless operators has been a hot topic in recent months. Few deals have been announced in the US though there have been more abroad. Watching the carriers go head to head with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft on Search and web browsing (information retrieval on phones) leads one to suspect the two sides have talked, but failed to reach agreements – or perhaps it’s too early for the carriers to know exactly what they want long term.

Whether or not the carriers would be willing to let one of these online players be an MVNO is one aspect that hasn’t been discussed that extensively. Our research shows that few consumers are interested in ad-sponsored voice services, but consumers seldom say they are.

The other interesting aspect would choice of technology. We haven’t seen a greenfield entrant with the same resources as Google. Just because they bid doesn’t mean they have plans for a national roll-out. We’ve seen that with our local Wi-Fi – the SF trial.